Recent Posts by Matthew Rettenmund

Debbie Reynolds: A 90th Birthday Remembrance

Today, April 1, marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Debbie Reynolds. Debbie at Cinecon in '12 (Image by Matthew Rettenmund) I first encountered her at her Cafe Carlyle show in NYC in 2009. She was just great! And she guess my partner and I were gay, inviting me to "touch my one good…
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Oscars In Memoriam Snubs & Flubs 2022

It was not the most controversial thing that happened at the 94th Oscars, but as usual, the In Memoriam segment had its fair share of detractors. Anne Rice was a writer, but some of her works were made into very famous films. (Image via selfie) First, there seems to be a cultural divide over whether…
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Scoey Mitchell, Comic Trailblazer, Dies @ 92

Years ago, I started to write an oral history of Tattletales, a game show I believe bridged the gap between average game shows and reality TV. One of the survivors of that show was Scoey Mitchell, who also appeared on Match Game. I was heartened that he was still living. Guessing his wife's answer on…
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‘Better Than Cats’: Where That Came From

If you sarcastically go around saying of new, terrible Broadway shows, "I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats," there are (probably) a couple of reasons for that. Lee Wilkof, Ellen Greene & Hy Anzell in the original Little Shop of Horrors (Image via handout) But one reason you say it is not because…
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William Hurt, Oscar Winner, Dies @ 71

William Hurt, an Oscar winner who was one of the most successful leading men of the '80s, has died at 71. Kiss, before dying (Image via Island Alive) His death, reportedly from natural causes, comes about three years after he confirmed he had terminal prostate cancer that had spread. Will, the actor's son, said in a…
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Conrad Janis of ‘Mork & Mindy’ Dies @ 94

Conrad Janis, most familiar to TV fans as Mindy's music store-owning dad on Mork & Mindy, died March 1, just a few weeks after his 94th birthday. He gave good head shot. (Image via head shot) Janis, an accomplished jazz trombonist and art dealer with expansive knowlege of Modernist art, moved between the fields of…
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